home-made crafts for preteen girl---I'm watching my baby sister next week and I need to keep her busy!?

Question

she's 13, and she needs something to keep her busy this summer...we have a lot of craft supplies just sitting around the house (felt, pipe cleaners, beads, embroidery thread,pom-poms, wooden/cardboard boxes, paints/brushes/canvas, sewing stuffs, etc...) basically I'm an avid crafter and everytime hobby-lobby or michaels has a sale I stock up...now she is 13 but she hasn't done any of the things I did by the time I was 13...she can't sew, paint, or craft at all ... and ... here's the kicker .... she wants to learn how to craft...so where do I start teaching her? what is a good beginners project? I started selling crafts I made with my mom when I was her age...but she never has done anything like that...my mom really got me going on recycled crafts (like crafts made from empty pickle jars and cardboard tp tubes) so I keep a stock of those types of things as well and that's primarily what I want to teach her (because it's the easier, more creative and more fun type of crafting)
any ideas

Answer 1

Ask her what is hot in school/with her friends at the moment, like hemp jewelry, lanyards or friendship bracelets, (all kinds of macrame, any kind of macrame might do, otherwise, any string will let you teach her the moves and she can get the right string next shopping expedition:
http://www.bluemoon.net/~dotoran/
http://www.curbly.com/threadbanger/posts/1979-How-to-Make-A-Macrame-Bracelet-or-Necklace-
http://www.mediamessage.com/kayton/GirlScouts/bracelet.htm
Or make some jewelry with the beads you have around, add little figures you cut out of felt if you want to do something a little more adventures, either a single layer of felt, or two layers with a bit of cotton-wool for a filling.

Make some container as next 'project' a nice and quick job so she can take her new jewels home in a nice package.

Whatever you do, keep the first few projects short, the kind you can finish in an afternoon, so she can see the results.
But after the first day you can lengthen the time per project and when she goes home again you can give her a bigger project that you together have just started.

Making a scrap-book can be done besides the other crafts, you can make a page for each craft project, using the left-over materials, print-out of instructions, photos you took during the day, if you have any and so on.
You may get her to make a 'recipe' book for all her crafts that way, which will help her to remember how she has done each project.

Answer 2

I think scrapbooking would be a good thing to start with. At her age, she could really get into it I think. And it's not a technically difficult hobby so it might be easier for her to start here. Plus it allows so much creativity. It's such a diverse craft that you would probably be able to use a lot of the supplies around the house on the pages too. The only drawback to it is the cost. Once I got really into it, it got expensive buying all the paper and embellishments. But it's so much fun- I got my daughter into it already and she's only 8!

Answer 3

If you have any of the plastic needlepoint canvas that is an easy thing to start with and can make some really fun crafts such as drink coasters, place mats, little boxes to store trinkets. I made a small sewing box with them and also a door stop that looks like a house. I put a brick inside for weight. I also have a set of alphabet blocks my husband and I made from the plastic canvas when I was pregnant with my first child 24 years ago.

Answer 4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jgg0GIfbszg
take alook at this and try a simpler version of the..
take water ina tub splash oil colourss.. and put a papre on it.. u get breat designs for wrpping papaers/cards et....
or put water/oil colours bet ween fold of a pare and fold it.. get great designs from there too....
i did tht with my son 20yrs ago.. have fun...